Anthropology of Global Climate Urgency
Doctoral Network
Afterlives of Environmental Projects
Mafia Island, Coastal Tanzania
Fieldwork update by Rebecca Campbell - March 2025
Mafia Island (Tanzania) is in the Mafia Archipelago in the southern region of Pwani, Tanzania. It is located 126 kilometres away from Dar es Salaam and covers approximately 394 square kilometres. The Mafia channel is a 20-kilometre stretch of water that separates the island from the mainland, with transportation leaving to and from Mafia via Dar es Salaam (flight) and Nyamisati (ferry). As a result of the infrequent, cumbersome and/or expensive accessibility, Mafia Island is quite isolated from the rest of Tanzania and does not see as many tourists/visitors as other regions. The current population is estimated at around 66,000 people. Mafia Island has been mentioned in historical records from as early as the eighth century, and was an important stopover on the Indian Ocean trade route. Jibondo Island and Chole Island (both part of the Mafia archipelago) have been making dhows- wooden arabic sailboats- for centuries, and people would come to Mafia from the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East to purchase these boats. Mafia is home to the first marine park in Tanzania, which was funded by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and the government of Tanzania in 1995.
The island is climatically tropical, experiencing dry and warm winters, humid summers as well as intense northern winds, and heavy rainfall during the monsoons. Most people on the island rely on fishing as their primary source of income, with tourism now becoming more important for broader reaches of the population on Mafia. Many people on Mafia rely on subsistence methods to procure food, and run small businesses and/or are involved in tourism on the island. There is no post-secondary schools on the island, and it was the last region in Tanzania to have a secondary school built. Many people on the island do not graduate past elementary school, but the younger generation is changing these patterns. Many students go to other regions of Tanzania to further their studies.
I have been staying at an accommodation in the Kilindoni district of Mafia. Kilindoni is the main “town” area of Mafia, and though it is not included in the boundaries of the Marine Park, it is where whale shark tourism takes place, and where many other environmental and development projects have been implemented. It is where everyone arriving to Mafia lands, either via ferry or plane.
My first week in Tanzania was incredibly fruitful and full, as I met with two of the main NGO’s that I had been speaking with prior to beginning fieldwork. There were events planned with both organisations and I attended a training workshop in Bagamoyo for young activists, and a mangrove planting day outside of Dar es Salaam. I have maintained close contact with both of these NGO’s, and have interviewed many people who are members of these groups. I was not sure how I was going to be including this work into my project, but I knew they were important connections to have, particularly in gauging what young Tanzanians are considering to be pertinent and viable forms of activism. I was not clear with where my research would be based, and had intended for mangroves to be a central tenant of the projects that I was looking at. What I have come to understand now, is that rather than looking at mangrove projects specifically, I have found mangroves to be a directional tool. Looking at mangrove restoration and related projects has given me access to a variety of people, places and organisations, which has then lead me to other focal points (such as tourism as a supposed linear projection of development). Mangroves have become more of a theoretical tool of analysis for me, rather than content that I am looking at specifically. However, I am still following environmental projects that have mangrove restoration as part of their mandates, as most of these projects are supported by organisations that do other work in Mafia and other areas along the coast of Tanzania.
This fieldwork had the potential to be taking place in two or three different locations, Rufiji delta being one option, as well as Bagamoyo. It made the most sense to undertake ethnography in one place. However, I have been meeting with, interviewing and keeping in contact with youth-led NGO’s in Dar es Salaam, that have provided me with an excellent alternative understanding of “afterlives” of international environmental projects. I maintain these interlocuters because there are no youth-led NGO’s in Mafia, and I am able to understand what types of environmental issues are topical for Tanzanian youth. While these organizations are based in Dar, they also provide opportunities for youth outside of the city (through scholarships for workshops and trainings) to join in environmental activism, and so when I join I am able to meet people from all over.
When I first came to Mafia, I booked a room in one of the most basic lodges that are available on the island, thinking that I would move to a small house somewhere in one of the villages once I gained my bearings. What I did not realize then which I then began to understand as time went on, was that I had placed myself in a prime location. There were people coming “in and out” (everything is outdoors so that term is more metaphorical in this case) of the lodge constantly who were involved in fishing, tourism and the marine park. In other words, I had my ethnography at my doorstep (though of course I still go to different parts of Mafia often). As a result of the location I found myself in, I began to attune myself more to tourism in Mafia. I recognised tourism (predominantly whale shark tourism) as the most obvious afterlife of the Mafia Island Marine Park (MIMP) and have been working extensively with people involved in the whale shark tourism industry. This has been incredibly insightful as many people involved in the whale shark tours are either current, or previous fishermen (there are almost no women involved) who have a thorough understanding on climate change patterns in Mafia, as well as impacts that have been felt as a result of the MIMP. Working with whale shark tourism has also led me to being involved in WATONET (Whale Shark Tourism Operators Network), that is now formally registered as an NGO. In conjunction with WATONET, I have met so many interesting characters that are shaping this research in ways beyond what I had originally imagined.
On January 27, I collaborated with WATONET to host a workshop with all of the whale shark tour guides young and old, and boat captains in the first meeting of its kind. Often those involved in whale shark tourism, especially the younger guides and the boat captains are part of larger meetings with tourism “stakeholders”, and rarely get a chance to speak about their issues, and with one another. This was part of my “eco-ethnographic” approach, as it was “involving the public in the production of knowledge about the environment” (Grace-McCaskey, Iatarola, Manda, Etheridge 2019, 4)”. Some of these guides and boat captains are citizen scientists (not necessarily for me as a sole researcher, but for gathering data on whale sharks and ocean ecology in general), and together we spoke about what was important and what types of work we could all do together in the future. This was conceived of in an attempt to make tourism in Mafia a sustainable and viable endeavour for those involved.
I have also recently learned that there is a sudden influx of Europeans who have purchased land in the very north of the island, one of the least accessible areas of Mafia. Through my contacts who I have accrued from the room I have been staying at, I have been introduced to these people and have been learning about the dynamics of how certain Tanzanian residents are partnering with Europeans so they can purchase land to build their vacation homes, and in some ambitious cases, wellness centers. The north of the island was occupied intensively by German colonial forces, and is still a plantationocene (quite literally) full of coconut trees that were ordered to be there by Germans, over 100 years ago. I’m not sure how exactly to weave this into the other work that I am doing in Mafia, but it seems to me to be incredibly rich in ethnographic potential, as well as important to acknowledge and document.
This research will use qualitative fieldwork methods based on an inductive approach in the physical field sites and online. Fieldwork has consisted largely of participant-observation, which has been supplemented by open and semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis of and with professional groups that work on climate-related topics, and with the communities that these professionals target/work with. I have also organised some workshops in Mafia Island that have been very useful for my ethnographic work, as well as for citizen science and eco-ethnography initiatives.
So far there have been fourteen formal interviews that have been recorded and transcribed, and many others that were less structured and not recorded. Because Mafia Island has had ethnographies written on it before (first by Pat Caplan and then Christine Walley) and because the Marine Park and the Whale Shark Tourism initiatives have given me so many points of reference to build off of, it made sense to situate my research there.
